Rebecca Lauren, The Schwenkfelders

“Part history, part personal narrative, The Schwenkfelders tells the story of a persecuted people and a narrator who seeks answers to the stories of these people. . . Rebecca Lauren grapples with the questions of how to record family history while contending with the present. This collection travels from the outskirts of Hades to the banks of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, but no matter where the poet takes us, we will never forget the lives of a father who sings along the river’s edge, a woman who cures whooping cough with a strand of hair, or even the narrator who skips stories and wishes across still water.”

Born in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna Valley, Rebecca Lauren teaches English at Eastern University in suburban Philadelphia. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Quarter After Eight, and The Cincinnati Review, among others. Her poetry reflects upon her German ancestors’ immigration and subsequent settlement in Pennsylvania. She currently lives in Philadelphia with her partner, Joe, and their dogs, Gus and Trudy.